Holding Out For a Hero
by Verdot
Summary: Yuffie and heroism, or the lack thereof, in the world after the events of the original game. Some princesses are visionaries, and some pilots are poor retirees.


Yuffie was a part of the progressive generation.

It was a good thing she was around to make sure it was done right; everyone in that party was caught up in the past in one way or another. And sure, _maybe_ she was trying to restore an old and often backwards country to its former glory, but she had always imagined her type of glory was the kind that would actually last. No, not just imagined. She _knew_ it was the kind that was going to last.

If only there weren't so many stubborn men standing in her way.

_ooo_

_"Yuffie, you need to stop calling so much."_

The biggest disappointment after saving the world was how little follow-up anyone wanted to do. She liked to think it was a pretty big step in her whole 'grow up and get other people to shut up and listen' plan that she was _willing_ to continue along on that whole world-saving plan to begin with. She didn't have to give them all their materia back and she sure as heck didn't have to grace them with her presence in the continuing to be heroic thing. And unlike other distance fighters in the group, Yuffie didn't come with creepiness and baggage.

"But Cloud! There's children going _missing_ and Tifa said that you weren't around enough to call at the bar and to call you directly and I could use a sidekick on this."

There was a click and then a dialtone. God, he'd become such an asshole. What was the use of being a hero if you were just going to go back to being a nobody at the drop of a hat? It wasn't just Cloud either. Everyone was settling back at home and she could barely stay still. Saving the children of Wutai was the right thing to do, for sure, but it was contributing to her deeds and reputation in a way that sitting at home and listening to Elders drone on about _tradition_ didn't.

She cycled through her address book in her PHS, hoping that a better sidekick idea would come to her. Vincent would have been a good choice if he wasn't such a freaky recluse without a phone, because he didn't really follow Cloud's example like Tifa or Barret had. Plus there was that one time he'd made a joke to Cid about killing her in her sleep that she wasn't sure was a joke and the last thing she wanted was to find that out the hard way, far away from civilization with only her wits and skills to defend her.

It did make her think of Cid, though. And Reeve had said something about needing some help later on with a project that involved building or something. Cid was good at building things. He did used to go on long tirades about how he only trusted his own hands to make his weapons because everyone else didn't do it right. Yuffie had always thought that all pointy sticks were the same, personally.

And unlike Cloud, Cid was pretty easy to find. She checked her navigation software in her PHS and realized that it wasn't that far of a ride to Rocket Town by chocobo from where she was now. And it sure beat sitting around and pouting about Cloud being an asshole.

She patted the chocobo. "Alright Firaga, let's go with the other leader."

_ooo_

Yuffie had thought that making Cid leader when Cloud was off with The Crazy during their great adventure had been the worst mistake since believing that a talking robot cat was trustworthy. She would have volunteered herself if the others hadn't suggested him so quickly or she wasn't puking her guts out at the time they made the decision. Or during most of that silly Huge Materia thing.

But she remembered, in some kind of surreal memory that some of the party still lived in, how that had been the only time Cid really actually _looked_ old instead of just sounding like it. Maybe if she'd asked, he would have agreed with her.

Not that she would have.

_ooo_

Without the giant monument to failed progress-and other things that men got hung up about-Rocket Town looked just like any run down place in the middle of nowhere. Cid's house was easiest to find; there were pieces of machines all over the place, their guts spread out in patterns that were almost as random as the swirl that the lighter types of materia could get. And if that wasn't enough, the clanging was sure to lead her to the right place.

When she got closer, she noticed Shera sitting on the porch in a rocking chair, drinking something that Yuffie suspected wasn't tea. When their gazes met the older woman gave her a wry smile.

"Captain, you've got company."

"I'm busy, woman!"

Shera cleared her throat.

"I mean, ah, tell whoever it is I will be with them momentarily."

Shera sipped her drink. "He'll be out in a minute."

It occurred to Yuffie that it was probably a bad thing to owe Shera anything. Shera was a practicing saint if she felt she owed someone else anything; but the other way around? That woman had been around longer than even Cid had, who knew what kind of tricks she'd learned surviving Shinra that long. And it was always the quiet ones. A few uncomfortable minutes later Cid emerged from the shop, and it was obvious that he was having to do his own laundry.

"The hell are you doing here? Get bored pestering everyone else?"

Her first instinct was to pick up the nearest object and hurl it at him, but that wasn't going to get her what she wanted. "What, jealous I didn't go to you first with my brilliant proposal?"

"I'm going back in the shop."

"You sound just like Cloud, only older and _stupider_. I told Reeve that you'd rather sit and dream than _do_ anything." She was bluffing, of course, as she'd only had minimal contact with Reeve, mostly to see how Edge was turning out. She'd been so busy with Wutai and trying to convince the council of Really Old Guys That Messed Everything Up In The First Place to see things her way that she let Reeve tell her how the smoldering ruins of Midgar were doing. Usually in quick phonecalls.

Cid chewed on his cigarette and gave her a hard look before going back inside to where his shop was obviously located.

"You'll stay for dinner," Shera said, almost startling Yuffie as she'd forgotten that the woman was there during her brief parley with Cid. Quiet ones. Had to watch her back around those.

_ooo_

It was kind of a good thing that most of the people in the whole heroing group were in it for selfish reasons. Even Tifa and Aeris, nice girls deep down, were following Cloud around because they wanted something. Cloud had been such a cypher that she could almost believe that he was as idealistic as she had been. Plus what sixteen year old girl didn't hope that the cute boy with the nice arms wanted to save the world because she was there?

That's why reality sucked.

_ooo_

Yuffie could see why Cid drank so much tea; considering how Shera's food all tasted like variations of burned rubber and cardboard, she was guzzling the stuff like there was no tomorrow. When Cid had finally come to the table it was obvious that he was used to this; used to, but obviously not enjoying. The meal was so awful that the first thing that popped into her head came straight out of her mouth.

"So are you two _together_ or something now?"

Every muscle in Cid's body went tense. Shera, however, burst out laughing, the loudest Yuffie had ever heard her. It wasn't a shrill laugh at least, even if it startled her.

"He's my tenant," Shera said, slightly out of breath, once the laugh was out of her.

"So you're his... landlady?"

"It's her damn house." Cid got up, practically tossed his dish in the sink, and went back to the shop area. Shera kept eating her food, obviously unfazed by that declaration.

Yuffie had just about enough of this, so she followed Cid into his workshop.

"Cid! What the heck is wrong with you?"

She didn't really give a hoot about any weirdness between him and Shera, or why his house was filled with half-finished machines that didn't seem to serve any purpose in their current state. But Yuffie didn't get why he and Cloud were ghost states of themselves; the hero had replaced his endearing arrogance with avoidance and the captain he replaced his bravado with a slow simmering discontent. Was this what a midlife crisis looked like?

"Yuffie, just go on home, I don't give a shit about your 'proposal'."

His back was to her, fiddling with probably another thing that he wasn't going to finish that would end up rusting on his lawn. Ninjas were quick, though, so she hopped onto the workbench and planted herself right in the middle. There was just enough space for her to sit between the metal pieces.

"I reject your rejection!"

"Listen, brat, go find someone else to bother. I'm _retired_."

She crossed her arms. "Retired from what? Life? Doing something worthwhile? I mean sure, the whole space thing kind of sucked, but you're just going to stop dreaming?"

Maybe she had been listening when he made those big speeches about dreams, even if they were never really directed at her. And maybe it was a big letdown that he was settling for mediocrity so soon. And she wasn't going to let him off the hook like she had with Cloud.

"You're _Cid Highwind!_ People look up to you, you stubborn jerk!"

She sprung up onto the balls of her feet then, and grabbed the collar of his coat with both her hands. Yuffie tried to imagine all those old geezers telling her that her plans for Wutai were foolish, Cloud's still unpersonalized voice message, how quickly everyone had drifted like that year around the world was nothing more than a blip. She thought about shaking all her frustrations out.

She kissed him instead. Like all smokers, he tasted like ash, which almost made her want to sputter.

"And... I'll be going now."

Yuffie was just as quick to leap off the workbench and exit the room, wild-eyed, and wondering what had just happened.

_ooo_

She'd been worried at first, under all the insults and bragging that she was just going to be the kid in the group, a tagalong like younger siblings of her friends back home. But about halfway through that year she noticed that no one _really_ belonged; if they had, they wouldn't have been anonymously trying to save the world. And while she had made sure that _her_ public knew what she was a part of, not all of them did. And some names were going to be lost in only a short couple of years.

In the end, she only hoped to get some of them to tag along with her.

_ooo_

"I suppose you'll be wanting me to make a new ship, the Highwind's fucking obsolete these days."

Yuffie had Firaga by the harness and was just about to hop on and get out of dodge before her brain could catch up with her actions. She waited five seconds before turning to see where he was.

"You'll have to come out of retirement, old man. And you'd better have a lot of buckets around, or figure out how to keep it from rocking so much."

He fished a piece of paper out of his jacket pocket, the kind that looked like it had been folded a lot. "You're gonna have to steal a lot of materia to pay for the construction. Still working on the name."

This really wasn't how she pictured things happening, but it wasn't a bad start. She almost missed Shera when she placed a bag on the porch, one of those old military bags that soldiers used to carry all their clothes and stuff. Quiet ones like that were always prepared.

"How about the Shera?"


End file.
